Flying to the north pole

On my list to visit all countries of the world, I found that an important spot was missing, but that spot is not actually a country: The North Pole.

As there is no land mass at the pole (sometimes it is ice, sometimes just water), travelling there usually involves a trip by boat and can take several weeks.

But by chance I discovered a one day special flight by a German company called Air Events that offered a flight where they take you to 90 degrees north, fly a few rounds over the pole as low as possible and then return.

This was as close as I could get tho the pole without travelling for many days, so I booked my ticket.

The flight departed in the early morning from Berlin Tegel Airport, so I arrived the evening before and slept some hours at the airport.

I checked in and – as the north pole has no airport – it was funny to see, that the flight was actually listed as going from Berlin to Berlin. The boarding pass shows XXX fictious point as destination.

Then it was time to board the flight to the north pole.

During the apx. 12 hour flight, we had breathtaking views of places that are not touched by civilization and that show how fragile our ecosystem is. Disappearing ice gave me a new insight into the dangers of global warming and climate change. It is something completely different if you just read in the media that the ice at the poles is melting or if you see it with your own eyes.

The view at 90 degrees north was not very spectacular because it was cloudy and although the pilot flew very low, we could not see much.

But the views later made up for that on a big scale.

I will just show you some of the nicest impressions that I was able to catch during the flight:

Svalbard / Longyearbyen. The nothernmost airport of the world on the small island of Svalbard.

More impressions of the ice landscape on Svalbard.

The actual view of the north pole at 90 degrees north. Not as spectacular as expected.

Impressions of the landscape and the mountains of northern Greenland where no man has set his footsteps in the ice yet.